As summer ends, take comfort in this hearty meal of sausages with fennel and
lentils - from kitchen to table in half an hour.

This wholesome supper works best with rich Toulouse sausages which are flavoured with bacon, wine and herbs. Most supermarkets now stock a version of these but if you don’t have any luck finding them, use a good quality pork sausage and add some chopped, smoked bacon to the pan at the beginning.

Finely slice the carrot, fennel and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a casserole pan over a medium heat. Add the carrot and fennel and cook for five to ten minutes until softened and slightly coloured. Add the garlic, tomato puree and rosemary to the pan and cook for a minute or two more, stirring.

While the carrot and fennel are cooking, halve each sausage by twisting in the middle to form two smaller sausages and cutting them in half.

Push the vegetables to the side of the pan, add the sausages to the middle and lightly brown. Drain the lentils, add to the pan with the chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Stir well.

Pour in half of the stock, bring to a simmer, pop on a lid and leave to bubble for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every so often and adding the rest of the stock as needed to stop the mixture drying out.

Serve with some wilted spinach, spring greens or French beans drizzled with olive oil.

Variations

Try adding a glass of red wine or white wine in place of some of the stock.

You can make this with dried puy lentils too, which will increase the cooking time by 10 to 15 minutes. They will also absorb a lot more stock so make some extra.

Other tinned pulses work well as an alternative to puy lentils - try cannellini or borlotti beans or a mixture.